The mother of Angelina Jolie, Marcheline Bertrand, died yesterday after fighting cancer for over seven years.

Ms. Bertrand, a Canadian-American actress of Spanish and Québécois descent, died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Jolie's older brother James Haven were at the hospital yesterday.

Bertrand, 56, who had a few bit parts in '80s films, studied with Lee Strasberg, and raised Jolie and Haven after she separated from Jon Voight in 1975 and divorced him three years later.

Instead of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Women's Cancer Research Institute at Cedars.

AP photo by Kevork Djansezian